The significance of hormone action in psychiatry has long been studied, but only recently has this study included the psychiatric effects of hormones on the aging process. Hormones influence a wide scope of states and conditions, ranging from pain tolerance and anorexia to attention, mood, immunity, cardiovascular and cognitive function, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer's disease. Written by an eminent team of psychiatrists, psychologists, geriatricians, and neuropharmacologists, this pioneering clinical reference addresses the hormonal basis of mental disorders in older people. This book brings together established information and recent findings in four sections: An overview of the basic science of neurosteroids Sex difference and the roles that cortisol, thyroid hormone, and the sex steroids estrogen, progesterone, dehydroepiandrosterone and testosterone play in common mental disorders and pain sensitivity Psychoneuroimmunology in relation to age Sex differences and hormones in psychotropic drug metabolism in the elderly.